Singer

Few orchestras can currently boast in their dramaturgy an opera premiere by the great Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. The previously unplayed and unpublished version of the opera Mariken von Nimègue will be a gift for all of us lovers not only of his music. Chief conductor Tomáš Netopil will take over the performance.

Beethoven – Pastoral Symphony

Municipal House

Mozart – Requiem in Municipal House

The first half of the concert will be of Russian Romanticism music. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in D Minor by Sergei Rachmaninov is one of his most technically demanding piano concertos. The young British artist Isata Kanneh-Mason will be presented to the audience in Prague. The second part of the evening will be of Russian music of the 20th century. The chief conductor of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Petr Popelka, will present the neo-classical oratorio-opera Oedipus Rex by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto was written by the French poet and playwright Jean Cocteau, based on Sophocles' tragedy of the same name. The title roles will be played by: Ester Paulů (mezzo-soprano), Jiří Brückler (baritone), Pavel Švingr (bass) and Daniel Matoušek (tenor), with Igor Bareš as the narrator. The artists will be accompanied by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the male part of the Prague Philharmonic Choir.

EPSG:4326

Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto

Rudolfinum

Our principal conductor once praised the "natural quality" of our orchestra, saying that we "never play routinely" and therefore it "never sounds boring." He particularly appreciates our great enthusiasm for discovering the often still unknown music of his homeland, and so we will once again delve with him into the Czech repertoire, which has become irresistible to us – with exciting works such as the "Suita rustica" by Vítězslava Kaprálová, who was not only a highly gifted composer but also the first female conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. She came from Brno but died in exile in France at the young age of 25.

Guest at the Vienna Musikverein

Vienna Music Society

In an interview, our principal conductor remarked approvingly that our orchestra's "special ability" is to "truly give its all in every concert"—and under his direction, we achieve this particularly well because we have long since achieved perfect synergy. We are delighted to immerse ourselves once again in a highly romantic work by his beloved composer Dvořák, who was once called the "prophet of Czech art." It was also said of his invigorating musical language and colorful inventiveness that one could argue about them as little as about the arrival of spring. This concert focuses on one of his vocal works, which Jakub Hrůša calls a "wonderful gift"—and whose "sensual melodic charm" was already praised by his contemporaries: The Stabat Mater, the setting of the medieval poem of the same name about Mary's grief at the sight of Jesus on the cross, is an exceptionally vivid and emotional piece.

Jakub Hrůša: Dvořák's Stabat mater

Bamberger Symphoniker

Enjoy a fantastic start to the new year with us in the Dvořák Hall at the Rudolfinum! Our Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will be celebrating the occasion under the baton of conductor Jan Kučera. At this gala New Year's concert, we will hear tenor Daniel Matoušek, guitarist and mandolin player Barbora Kubíková and pianist and singer Ahmad Hedar. Together they have rehearsed an attractive program called ‘O sole mio – the most famous Italian songs and arias, composed by: Hector Berlioz, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Francesco Paolo Tosti, Gioacchino Rossini and others.

New Year's Concert ´O sole mio - the most famous Italian songs and arias

Mozart’s illustrious operatic oeuvre is rounded off by a work providing both copious entertainment and food for thought, affording a fantastic spectacle and presenting a magical ritual of initiation of the human spirit. All that is encompassed in Die Zauberflöte, and all that can be found in Vladimír Morávek’s colourful production, featuring a thrilling atmosphere and teeming with mysterious symbols. There is something for everyone – adults and children, including, if fear hasn’t consumed them, the very youngest.

Die Zauberflöte

The Estates Theatre

And if we were to name the places at which Mozart in person premiered an opera of his and which still function as theatres, the one and only candidate in the world would be the Estates Theatre in Prague. The National Theatre Opera has proudly cherished this unique tradition for decades.

Don Giovanni

Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, to the libretto based on Alexandre Dumas’s novel La Dame aux camélias, about Marie Duplessis, the famous courtesan and idol of Parisian society in the 1840s, is actually the very first major opera treating a contemporary social theme. The work’s premiere in 1863 in Venice was a flop: the audience was appalled that the lead role had been assigned to a courtesan who, what’s more, was portrayed in a positive light. Yet Verdi’s opera soon started garnering plaudits and is now one of the most popular repertoire titles the world over.

La traviata

State Opera

Composed by one of the major figures of 20th-century musical theatre – the creator of 16 musicals and hundreds of songs, who launched his career writing the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story – it is an iconic work of its genre. SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a riveting synthesis of dark humour, horror and melodrama, imbued with brilliant musical irony.

SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The Secret is Bedřich Smetana’s seventh, and penultimate, opera. It is also the second fruit of the composer’s collaboration with the librettist Eliška Krásnohorská. Completed in May1878, the piece received its premiere the on 18 September at the New Czech Theatre in Prague. The National Theatre first staged the opera on 12 May 1885, on the first anniversary of Smetana’s death. Yet it only attained wide popularity after the post of the opera company’s director had been assumed by the conductor Karel Kovařovic, who was fully aware of the qualities of the mature Smetana work. Krásnohorská furnished Smetana with an exquisite libretto, whose themes may bring to mind William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or the Czech author Ladislav Stroupežnický’s play Our Uppish and Defiant Fellows, dating from a later time.

The Secret

National Theatre Prague

Almost three centuries have passed since the English painter, satirist and “forefather of the cartoon” William Hogarth created a series of eight paintings (and later on engravings), tellingly titled A Rake’s Progress – the path, development, simply the life of a libertine. They capture the story of a young man who inherits an immense fortune and proceeds to squander it on luxurious living, gambling and prostitutes. It is not a trait exclusive to the 18th century that people indulging in such a lifestyle end up at a psychiatric hospital, called during Hogarth’s time (and until recently) an “asylum”.

The Rake’s Progress

When, in 1888, the music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition for young Italian composers, who were invited to submit a one-act opera, he had not the slightest inkling that the victorious piece would become a timeless blockbuster. The 25-year-old Pietro Mascagni sent Cavalleria rusticana, which he had just completed. The premiere, in 1890 in Rome, was a true sensation, and the verismo opera, depicting ordinary contemporary people, villagers and low social classes, would remain Mascagni’s greatest success. Ruggero Leoncavallo decided to follow suit and duly composed his very first opera, Pagliacci, in the verismo style. Premiered in 1892 in Milan, the piece met with an enthusiastic response. In 1893, the two operas were first staged as a double bill, and ever since they have been frequently performed together.

Tenor

Daniel Matoušek

Events

Upcoming events

Aug 26, 2026 - Feb 14, 2027

Die Zauberflöte · Národní divadlo

Aug 28 - Nov 27, 2026

Don Giovanni · Národní divadlo

Aug 29, 2026 - Jan 24, 2027

La traviata · Národní divadlo

Sep 24, 2026 - Jun 27, 2027

SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street · Národní divadlo

Nov 6 - Dec 28, 2026

The Secret · Národní divadlo

Past events

17 - 18 Jun, 2026

Beethoven – Pastoral Symphony · Prague Symphony Orchestra

29 - 30 Apr, 2026

Mozart – Requiem in Municipal House · Prague Symphony Orchestra

Future and recently performed repertoire

Gaston in La traviata by Verdi

Národní divadlo

Singer in Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Singer in Requiem by Mozart

Prague Symphony Orchestra

Beppe in Pagliacci by Leoncavallo

Národní divadlo

Singer in Stabat Mater by Dvořák

Bamberger Symphoniker

Tamino in Die Zauberflöte by Mozart

Národní divadlo

Adolfo Pirelli in Sweeney Todd by Sondheim

Národní divadlo

Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni by Mozart

Národní divadlo

Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress by Stravinsky

Národní divadlo

Jirka in The Secret by Smetana

Národní divadlo

Mascaron in Mariken de Nimègue by Martinů

Prague Symphony Orchestra

About

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